In recent years, electric connectors having numerous terminals are being used in the field of automobiles and the like, and are continually become more and more advanced. With an electric connector having numerous terminals, a large force is necessary to mate together connectors and release the connection. Therefore, in the field of automobiles and the like, a lever-type connector to mate with and release from a mating connector utilizing effect of boosting by a lever is used.
Here, the lever-type connector design has adopted a retainer to prevent a contact that is received in a contact receiving passageway in an inner housing from falling out of the contact receiving passageway. The retainer secondarily latches onto the contact received in the contact receiving passageway. Moreover, this type of lever-type connector has adopted a configuration where the retainer is arranged inside of an outer housing in order to prevent the latch on the contact by the retainer from unintentionally being released due to exertion of external force on the retainer.
However, the lever-type connector having a retainer arranged inside of an outer housing, a problem occurs in that it is difficult to move the retainer from a released position to a locked position when latching the retainer onto the contact.
A conventional lever-type connector 100 shown in FIGS. 10 to 13, for example, is well-known, which is used to solve the above problem. The lever-type connector 100 includes a housing 110 that receives a contact 101 (see FIG. 12 and FIG. 13), a wire cover 120 that covers an electrical wire 102 (see FIG. 12 and FIG. 13) lead out from the contact in the housing 110, and a lever 130 for mating with a mating connector 200.
As shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, the housing 110 includes an inner housing 140 having multiple contact receiving passageways 141 in which the contact 101 is received, and an outer housing 150 that receives the inner housing 140.
A retainer receiving depression 142 that opens upward is provided on the inner housing 140, as shown in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13. A retainer 160 that secondarily latches on to the contact 101 is inserted into the retainer receiving depression 142. Moreover, a tool insertion passageway 143 is provided on the rear surface of the inner housing 140, into which a tool 210 for operating the retainer 160 is to be inserted.
A retainer insertion passageway 151 in which the retainer 160 is to be inserted is provided on the top surface of the outer housing 150.
When receiving the contact 101 in the contact receiving passageways 141 of the inner housing 140, the retainer 160 is first inserted into the retainer receiving depression 142 of the inner housing 140 through the retainer insertion passageway 151 of the outer housing 150. The retainer 160 is then set to the released position, as shown in FIG. 12.
Next, as shown in FIG. 12, the contact 101 is inserted in the contact receiving passageways 141 of the inner housing 140 in which the retainer is set to the released position. The contact 101 inserted in the contact receiving passageways 141 is primarily latched on to by a catch 144 provided within the respective contact receiving passageways 141 of the inner housing 140.
Then, as shown in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13, the tool 210 is inserted into the tool insertion passageway 143, and by pressing a slant face 161 on the retainer 160 by an end 211 of the inserted tool 210, the retainer 160 at the released position is moved to the locked position. Next, as shown in FIG. 13, by moving the retainer 160 to the locked position, the contact 101 inserted in the contact receiving passageways 141 is secondarily latched by the retainer 160.
However, the lever-type connector 100 of FIG. 10 has adopted a configuration where the slant face 161 of the retainer 160 is pressed by the end 211 of the inserted tool 210, in order to move the retainer to the locked position. As a result, with the lever-type connector 100, when moving the retainer 160, there is a problem in that it is not easy to move the retainer 160 to the locked position, since the direction in which the tool 210 is inserted is not the same direction in which the retainer 160 is moved. If the retainer 160 cannot be moved completely to the locked position, the latch onto the contact 101 by the retainer 160 becomes incomplete, and there is a chance that the contact 101 may fall out of the inner housing 140.